This was originally posted on December 1, 2010 and updated at the bottom.

As a child, we always had a real Christmas tree. We would go as a family to the tree lot (or a few times when we lived in the country, we’d go to the forest) and pick out our tree. Our trees always had a significant amount of the glass red bulbs meshed with homemade and keepsake items. We’ve kept that tradition in my own grown-up household, with the substitution of a fake tree since that fateful Christmas when a friends' neighbors' house burned down on Christmas morning.

Our trees were usually in the 4-foot range, but when you are a child, four feet is the top of the world. And family made it seem even bigger.

We usually get a wreath from the tree lot just so the kids have the tree lot/tree smell experience, although we have been known to skip that tradition.

One tradition that is all our grown up tradition and began almost 25 years ago when we had our first Christmas together and found we had no tree topper. Marc scavenged and found the perfect thing for us. And I hope it will be passed down for generations to come.

Sitting atop our tree every year is the Terry the Pterodactyl. The orange pterodactyl model has been perched on our tree since 1986 and I can’t imagine Christmas without him.

Updated 2012: Terry is celebrating his 25th year atop the Mascot Family Christmas Tree (yes, that is Frankenstein with a Santa hat on him in the background- that's just how we roll). We put our tree up early this year, due to having the kids at Gramma's for 3 days. We had time and energy for it... Signa also got a highly-coveted purple tree this year. (Not sure why the pictures are sideways- will have to fix later. Stupid iphone)